Dear Colleagues,

In the US, actions have been called for confronting the international economic competitiveness and innovation policy challenges (US President Obama, in his speech in 2011 State of the Union Address). In Europe, a set of specific laws and policies has been developed for innovation towards the horizon of 2020. In that regard, the European Union’s main objectives are to “(i) facilitate the formation of long-term tangible assets (e.g., energy, transport and communication infrastructures, industrial and service facilities, housing and climate change, and eco-innovation technologies) and intangible assets (e.g., education and research and development), and (ii) boost innovation and competitiveness”. Besides their short-term impact in raising the productive and industrial capacity of the economy, most of these actions have “wide public benefits since they generate significant returns for society as a whole by supporting essential services and improving living standards” (EU Green Paper, 2013).

While efforts have been made to set up policies towards innovation, the questions of how to drive innovation in quantity and speed and to control the quality of achievement at the same time still remain under debate. Moreover, there is a lack of understanding about the implementation process and the outcomes. In fact, innovation cannot just be a good idea, but has to be enforced operationally. Moreover, the objectives of public sector innovation cannot solely be expressed in terms of providing some competitive advantages: these innovations should achieve value for the society (OECD, 2014).

This Special Issue will dedicate attention to the actions of governmental organizations to boost innovation to its full potential, both inside the organization (optimizing work processes, using incentives schemes for public employees, e-government, etc.) and outside the organization (exploiting new practices of outsourcing like pre-commercial procurement, procurement of innovative solutions and innovation partnerships). The goal is to enhance the understandings about determinants of those actions and their impact on performance.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Determinants of innovation initiatives/actions
• Incentive schemes for innovation initiatives/actions
• Performance measurement of innovation
• Public procurements for innovation
• Innovation in public procurements

Dr. Phuong Tra Tran
Dr. Marco Buso
Guest Editors

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